Will you be congradulating us on Tuesday should we receive a franchise?

I'm sure he will find it to be a truly poptablious moments!

there is one possible that everyone is overlooking (although remote as i beleive we are gone alone)

what will happen if both wakey and cas are "shafted/disenfranchised" etc.

i wonder if the atmosphere will be different?....

One goes down the other stays up we will be fighting
Both go down we will be uniteing (in anger not merging)

One of the consequences of the RFLs current policy won't be seen for ten or fifteen years and even then most of those who are still following the sport won't connect the two.

Without a Wakefield Trinity and the stars it creates to follow many, of the young kids will never take Rugby League to their hearts. A drastic reduction of adult supporters means an equal or higher reduction in junior supporters and therefore the loss of potential future fans and players.

Without a Neil Fox there might not have been a David Topliss, without a Derek Turner there might not have been a Trevor Skerrett, without a Keith Holiday there might not have been a Nigel Bell, without an Alan McCurrie there might not have been a Billy Conway, without a Graham Idle there might not have been a Gareth Ellis or a Ben Westwood and so on and so on.

Wakefield is one of the most fertile breeding grounds of quality Rugby League players in the world, up there with Wigan, but if you stop sowing the seeds then a few years down the line there's nothing to harvest. Worse than that, something else grows in it's place and when football finally wins the day in Wakefield there will be no way back for Rugby League. You don't begin strengthening a structure by knocking out one of the supporting pillars which hold the whole thing up!

The decisions of Lewis, Wood & Rimmer have a far greater reach than the next three years, their impact will last decades and may even inflict irreparable damage to the game. The direction in which these three are leading the game alongside the near amputation of Cumbria, the artificial loss of a strong Wakefield club and who knows who's next it is bordering on a level of incompetence that is almost criminal.

I'm not against expansion but you cannot artificially create a Rugby League culture where none existed and expect success. Expansion has to begin at the very foot of the game with constant, persistent and quality exposure to the sport within primary schools, kids summer coaching camps and secondary schools. You have to be realistic in your goals and understand that the outcome might not be hundreds of players, it might only be the the creation of a generation of young parents who have an affinity to the game. Those parents are like the early settlers of the wild west, it will take three generations of constant support to eventually create a culture.

You must do all this, you must be 100% committed to supporting this with every resource at your disposal and you must be willing to accept that it might or more likely will fail.

The provision of amateur facilities and the creation of local amateur clubs is the next step forward, then and only then do you begin to see a community of Rugby League followers who might one day form or support the formation of a semi-professional club playing in the lowest division of the RFLs league structure.

That league structure must be established, rigid and have integrity, it must be consistent in it's rules or else it becomes open to the corrupting influences of ambitious individuals who seek to circumvent it at the expense of those who compete within it.

IMO that is the only way to expand the game but it's a slow methodical process that would not deliver immediate results. Unfortunately we are governed by men who lack the vision to adopt such a system, they are men who desire the kudos of basking in the glory of their paper thin achievements.
I have no doubt that they understand their folly but such is their desire to make an instant mark that they will always be susceptible to a man with money promising the world on a stick.

Wake up fellas!
Nothing worth having ever came easy!

Clan, that is a brilliant post. You should sent that to the RFL whatever the outcome is on Tuesday.

Nah it's a crap post. It doesn't involve instant and ready cash for the special clubs so who the hell at Red Hall would bother reading it let alone understand it.

To the honest, friendly and genuine WTWC fans, my friend you are making your self look foolish. We can go on until the cows come home, of our fans did this, your club did that etc etc. The simple fact of the matter is you DIDN'T relegate us twice, that was down to us, it happened that you were the team we played an a very important part of the season. I agree that what ever decision is made, the relevant club will feel hard done by, but the fact of the matter is we can't do anything about it and all clubs voted in favor not to challenge the decision when it's made. It is all down to who runs the clubs end of, it's just a shame that you didn't have your current owners in place a while ago. HOWEVER we are all assuming that Wakey will be going, but until 11am on Tuesday NONE of us really know......... do we!!!

We certainly beat you in two vital games not including the million pound game.

In 2004. We beat you at your place in a game you needed to win and you didn't. It may or may not have saved you in the end I can't remember exactly but had you won it you would have bought some time and at the very least avoided 1000 delirious Wakey fans milking the moment.

In 2006 I think it's even more clear cut tbh, we definitely were the team that did more to relegate you including actually relegating you than any other. You lost to us 3 times that season The "Never fear it's only Kear" game was especially crucial, if you had won that game you would have put us to bed end of. You clearly expected to win that game. We then put you away in a genuine relegation decider, to argue that we didn't actually relegate you is extreme spin and only a fool would argue otherwise.

I too think its a greast post Clan....BUT some of the people who are looking at licensing have cock all to do with the game and wont understand the underlying implications that you have quite rightly pointed out.

You keep living on that then if that's what makes you feel better. Doesn't make a blind bit of difference come Tuesday. You lot have dug yourself into a deep hole (off the field), as we did in 2004 (on the field, signings etc). We dug our way out of it. You lot can easily do it, albeit will take 3 years.

You beat me to it Richard brilliant post, I was thinking today along the same lines and was going to start a thread title ambition for the kids.

Last night while I watched the under 18s I wondered what the effect on the Wakefield youngsters this would have not having a Super League club in which they support.

They was very little between the two side last night so it does show that we do a have a good vein of talent and can hold our own and I hope we would maintain that in the years to come but from two years ago the attendance was far greater than it was last night and that in its self proves that the support is starting to diminish.

my lads coming up this season and has high hopes to at least push for a place if there's one available, at the moment I dont how committed he is if Wakefield isn't an option.

time will tell

In the end we were dependent on the Hull match too, and we'd have gone down anyway.



We lost 18 games that season; they weren't all against Wakefield and it was our performance throughout the season that got us relegated. Wigan also severely twisted the salary cap rules in order to drag themselves off the bottom of the table in the second half of the season, and were penalised for it. We also didn't finish bottom and therefore weren't the worst team in the league that season. However, the rules dictated that Catalans couldn't be relegated and so we went down in their stead.

What this tells us is that Cas weren't good enough to stay in SL by the rules that were in force at the time. The team didn't cut it consistently enough throughout the year, (not just against Wakey), didn't try to overspend to remain in SL and got relegated at the expense of an expansion club (as the rules dictated).

Call me a fool, if you like. I really don't care. but as the old saying goes: "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion."